Water guns have for decades been a very popular child's toy. The toy industry is very competitive, hundreds of different style water guns have been developed in an attempt to profit from the toy's inherent popularity. The earliest forms of water guns were activated by the pumping action which occurs during the depression of a trigger. Accordingly, the range and volume of water expelled by these water pistols was limited by the throw of the trigger. With the goal of projecting more water faster on the target always in mind, toy water gun designers have introduced a number of significant design enhancements—with many of these enjoying a substantial degree of commercial success.
Pressure differential water guns employing a bladder are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,480 to Robert S. Shindo and U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,239 to Michael E. Salmon et al, which show toy water devices that use an elastic bladder to pressurize water. The bladders are filled with high pressure water, and the bladders respond by elastically deforming. The source of pressurized water is then removed and the water within the expanded bladder is held in place by a clamping device activated by a trigger. The water gun is used by selectively releasing the clamp, allowing the water to flow from the expanded bladder. For so long as water remains in the bladder and the trigger is depressed, water is ejected through the nozzle in an extended, continuous stream for so long as the trigger is depressed.
Since a source of pressurized water is not always available, a number of other methods have been devised to enhance the flow rate and range of streams ejected by toy water guns. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,022,350 entitled WATER GUN and issued to the inventor herein, Alan Amron, on May 20, 1977, there is disclosed a toy water gun that incorporates a battery driven motor and associated pump. By means of reciprocating movement of the pump piston, water is drawn from a reservoir and discharged through a nozzle. The discharge is interrupted by the intake strokes of the piston so that the discharge is accomplished intermittently or in spurts rather than in a continuous stream.
Water guns have also been developed that use air pressure to pressurize water in a reservoir and to force the water through an avenue of release extending from the reservoir to a discharge nozzle. Such toys that use air pumps to pressurize water are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,163,330 issued to J. W. Ryan on Dec. 29, 1964 and entitled TOY WATER SHOOTING CAP RIFLE, which shows a toy rifle consisting of a pressurized water reservoir, a pump for manually pressurizing the water reservoir, and a valve activated by a trigger to allow the pressurized water to flow toward the nozzle. The water is discharged as a continuous extended stream for as long as the trigger is depressed provided that sufficient air remains in the reservoir to keep the water flowing.
In the past decade, pressurized water guns equipped with a hand operated pump, as taught by Ryan, have enjoyed a considerable degree of commercial success. However, the need to repeatedly operate the pumping mechanism—often twenty five times or more—to achieve adequate air pressurization within the reservoir, has presented a challenge to the impatient user and to smaller children. For this reason, it has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,347 entitled PRESSURIZED WATER GUN WITH SELECTIVE PRESSURIZATION and issued to the inventor herein on May 22, 2001, to give the user an option of selecting one of two different modes of pressurization—manual pressurization using an onboard pump or, when a source of municipally pressurized water is accessible, a one-way valve system designed to admit the already-pressurized water into the reservoir. Regardless of the method used for pressurizing the Amron water gun, depression of the trigger causes water to flow from the reservoir, through an avenue of release, and out the ejection nozzle as a continuous, extended stream.
The development and introduction of various design features over the past six decades have unquestionably yielded toy water guns which have better performance and operating characteristics (e.g., faster flow rates and the ability to discharge streams over longer distances) than the traditional water pistol design. Notably, however, the actual configuration of the toy water gun “output” has remained substantially the same during all that time. That is, while their range and flow rates have increased, toy water guns have heretofore been designed to produce a concentrated, straight stream of water capable, for example, of being aimed at and of striking a discrete point—usually in the shortest distance possible. A need therefore exists for toy water guns capable of discharging water in more innovative and creative ways.